In humans, lymphocytes make up the majority of the PBMC population, followed by monocytes, and only a small percentage of dendritic cells.
[2] These cells can be extracted from whole blood using ficoll, a hydrophilic polysaccharide that separates layers of blood, and gradient centrifugation,[3] which will separate the blood into a top layer of plasma, followed by a layer of PBMCs (buffy coat) and a bottom fraction of polymorphonuclear cells (such as neutrophils and eosinophils) and erythrocytes.
[5][6] Many scientists conducting research in the fields of immunology (including autoimmune disorders), infectious disease, hematological malignancies, vaccine development, transplant immunology, and high-throughput screening are frequent users of PBMCs.
PBMC fraction also contains progenitor populations, as demonstrated by methylcellulose based colony forming assays.
Inflammatory cytokines are usually added to aid in antigen uptake and recognition by PBMCs.